Who are we?

Who are we?
So, let’s start from the basics. What does “ZHP” mean and what is it? ZHP is short for “Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego” which in English translates to “Polish Scouting Association”.

ZHP is a social movement which shapes attitudes and characters. It has been supporting the education of children and teenagers following the scout ideas for over 100 years. The aim of ZHP is to educate young people, which means supporting them in comprehensive development and shaping of their characters by setting challenges.

Despite the fact that ZHP exists for over 100 years, Polish citizens are able to join the ZHP in Ireland for only a few years. It happened thanks to the passion and dedication of people who were scouts in Poland. These are the people who deeply believe that young Polish people in Ireland should also be guided by the scout ideas, which they idealise from their childhood.

ZHP in Ireland was officially founded in 2012, but the group in Cork has been started in 2010. In 2012, the first official groups were created. Children and teenagers would usually find out about Polish scouting from the Polish schools that they usually attend in the weekends. The first group was from Cork and it is “No.1” in their troop name, Dublin followed them with No. 2 and Waterford who was fascinated by the work of the group from Dublin, today proudly has No. 3.

We keep getting new people inspired by our work people to join us and make new scout troops in their areas.

On our weekly meetings, camps and summer camps, scouts can learn many interesting and useful things. These include, for example: first aid, encryption (including Morse Code), knots, the use of maps and compass as well as learn about nature. We also teach scouts things like lighting bonfires and placing a tent. As a scout is taught to serve God and Poland, there are inevitable Polish, Polish & World Scouting history of our foreign friends. Thanks to all these lessons, every scout knows when the Warsaw Uprising took place, who founded scouting and why Andrzej Małkowski is important to Polish Scouts.

We work with different age groups: “Skrzaty” aged 4-7, “Zuchy” aged 7-11, “Harcerze” aged 11-15 and “Wędrownicy” aged 15-21. For each different age group we have different programmes.